Urantia Books En Route to the Philippines

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Nestor Nano and Eugene Asidao

By Mike Wood, Kansas City, Kansas, United States

The mission of Urantia Foundation is to seed The Urantia Book and its teachings globally. 

Several months ago, Jay Peregrine entered my office late one afternoon and asked if I could name the largest Christian country with the highest religiosity in the world with no translation of The Urantia Book. I could not. His answer: the Philippines, a country that speaks Tagalog, an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a quarter of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by the majority. Its standardized form, officially called Filipino, is the national language and one of two official languages of the Philippines, the other being English.

A few weeks later, Eugene Asidao and Nestor Nano, two gentlemen from the Philippines now living on Chicago’s north side, came by Urantia Foundation to visit and talk about study groups.  Eugene informed me that he and Nestor were hosting a study group on Saturday afternoons just a few miles north of 533 W. Diversey Parkway, and they invited any interested readers to join them.

I attended their group the next Saturday and had a wonderful time. I also invited them to our regular Tuesday night study group, and several of them have attended frequently. During one of my conversations with Eugene and Nestor, we talked about their taking books to the Philippines.

Then, in early November, Eugene told me that he and Nester were traveling to the Philippines in mid-January and were planning on spending six weeks there placing The Urantia Book in libraries, universities, churches, and any study groups they could find or start while there. 

I immediately approached both Urantia Foundation and Urantia Association International on Eugene and Nestor’s behalf, hoping that one or both would quickly agree to supply the necessary funds for books. Within days, both organizations agreed to jointly support the project, and on Thursday, November 21, 2013, four large boxes, each containing 40 new hardcover copies of The Urantia Book and weighing 135 pounds, were loaded into a van on the first leg of a six to eight-week journey to the Philippines. 

Beginning in mid-January, Eugene and Nestor will spend six weeks placing 160 copies of The Urantia Book throughout Metro Manila, a metropolitan area of twelve million people, and throughout some of the outlying areas. I say some of the outlying areas because the Philippines is an island nation spread out over more than 7000 islands, and many parts of the country are not easily accessible. But even covering Metro Manila and the surrounding Greater Manila Area (comprising an additional 12 to 14 million inhabitants) will be a daunting task.

I look forward to sharing occasional emails from Eugene and Nestor during their journey as well as receiving a more detailed report of their adventures upon their return. It was thrilling and inspiring to box-up those books and prepare them for shipping. Godspeed, Eugene and Nestor!